Railway draft-rigging.



G. H. FORSYTH.

RAILWAY DRAFT RIGGING.

APPLIOATIOH FILED JULY 16,1904.

Patented Dec. 16, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

\Q 41 W1 mw Q IIIIT 6 Q Q ill [l1 Q MN N 45% N G. H. PORSYTH.

RAILWAY DRAFT RIGGING.

AYPLIGATION FILED JULY 16, 1904.

Patented Dec. 16, 1913.

2 SHEBTS-SHEET Z.

m mJN NA 9 m Q w i: N m W m/ r, 1- mm m u U" M m g 5% Q o 0 0 NWr|||D|IiP|||L -III l llll HHH n. MN m NH m l|..| 0 1 Q h u 3 N. t u x wk z 1 NH. M HMHHMI. illllillllmw lllll. 1@ M1,! N m w lllm. M Q u M G Om/hfl lid Ell

till

till

llhlllEU STATES PllgENlll tll l lllE.

GEORGE H. FURSY'JPH, OF CHICAGO, ILLINDlfi, itQfiIGNOH; T0 WdUGE hltifthll GEATtt GUMLPANW', ll GURJPOHATIUN or ILLINUIS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, Gnome ltl. l onsrrrrr, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State oflllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in RailwayDraft-Rigging, of which the following is a specification. 1

This invention relates to draft rigging for "railway cars, and moreespecially to that i movable members above mentioned, which are commonlytermed followers, normally Contact at their central portions with theends of the draw-bar and yolre-strap. Consequently, when the draw-bar isin a central position relatively to the car, the strains of bondingand-draft are evenly applied, to the adjacent followers throughout thewidth of the draw-bar and yoke-strap. -llllhen, however, the draw-bar isdrawn to one side as on curves, the loading and draft strains aretemporarily concentrated on one side of the central axis of theresistance medium. lhis not only injures the yolre but tends to throwone of the followers into an oblique or canted position, with the resultthat the strains of buffing and draft are unevenly applied to theresistance medium, llf the lat ter is the ordinary coil-spring thereresults a buckling of the same; whereas, if it consists of a frictionmechanism, the friction elements are subjected to unequal wear and theresisting capacity of the draft rigging is proportionately lessened.lturthermore,

the application of greater force to one side of the draft rigging thanto the other re sults in uneven strains upon and possible breaking of orinjury to the stop elements which are attached to the car and receivethe strains transmitted by the followers.

My present in enti n aims to overcome specification of Letters Patent.

Application tiled .luly to, will.

Patented Dec, lb, lhl herial Ho. 21%,829.

the above objections found in present practwo by providing means wherebythe strains of bulling' and draft on curves as well as on straight trackare not only applied in such a manner as not to injure the yoke, but tomaintain the followers in substantial parallelism to each other, therebydistributmg all strains evenly throughout the elements of the draftrigging.

Broadly speaking, l accomplish these ob' jects not merely by alwaysapplying the boiling and draft strains on or closely adjacent to thelongitudinal axis of the resistance medium, but by a construction andarrangement whereby said strains are not allowed to operate wholly onthe side of the,

longitudinal axis of the resistance medium to which the draw-bar isdrawn, but open ate on both sides of said longitudinal axis so as toprevent the follower from assuming an angular position relative to itscompanion follower.

ln other words, my invention consists in the association or combinationwith a drawbar and a follower or equivalent element of a draft riggingcapable of angular movement relatively thereto, of means whereby whenthe draw-bar is drawn to one side the strains of buffing and draftoperate upon the draft rigging through such a distribution of force onboth sides of the longitudinal axis of the resistance medium as toprevent sub-.

stantial angular movement of the follower or equivalent member or anydistortion of the parts of the draft rigging with the 1njury consequentupon such distortion Heretofore so far as l am aware, this generalresult has been attained only by having the draft rigging mechanism as awhole pivot and swing with the draw-bar. Such a method necessitates aradical departure from generally accepted and standard construe tions inrailway equipment in which the transverse and longitudinally-movablemenr here or followers are capable of angular movement relatively to thedraw-bar, and are adapted to successively abut stop elements attached tothe car, v

ln the accompanying drawings l have illustrated one practical form inwhich my invention may be embodied; and referring thereto,-- igure l isa top plan view of a draft rigging mechanism embodying my presentimprovement; Fig. 2 is a similar view of the same mechanism showing thetill litl

relative positions as umed by the parts under :1 butting strain when thedraw-bar is drawn to one side as on a curve: Fig. 3 is a. view similarto Fig. 2 showing the relative positions assumed by the parts under adraft strain when the draw-lair is drawn to one side as on a curve; Fig.-t is a longitudinal vertical sectional view of the parts as they appearin Fig. 1: Fig. is a front end view of Fig. l; and Figs. 6 and T areplan and elevation details showing construction and arimigement of partsfor economizing space between the end of the draw-bar or yoke and anadjacent follower.

Referring to the drtnrings, 1t) designates the parallel draft-sills ortimbers, which may be the center-sills of the car-body or draft-timberssecured to the under side of said center-sills. its herein represented,they are the steel channel center-sills of a car-body.

11 designates the transverse top plate uniting the forward ends of thesills, and 12 designates an inverted hanger or draw bar support securedto the under sides of the center-sills at their forward end. Secured tothe inner faces of the draft-sills 10 are the usual front and rear stopelements 13 and 14, respecti ely.

l5 designates the draw-bar which lies between the draft-sills 10, itsforward portion resting on the support 12, and its rear end havingattached thereto the usual draw-bar extension or yoke-strap 16, thislatter embracing the front and rear followers 17 and 18, respectively.Between the inner faces of said followers is interposed a resistancemedium, here shown for the sake of simplicity and convenience asconsisting simply of the usual heavy coil-spring 19.

Centrally of-the outer face of the front follower 17 I provide a roundedor convexed protuberance 17 and to the inner end of the draw-bar 15,between the upper and lower sections of the yoke, I attach a block 20,the inner face of which is concave on a curve of substantially the sameradius as the curve of the protuberance onthe follower, as shown at 90,excepting that the ends of the concavity are slightly revcrsely curved,as shown at 20*, to prevent the formation of anything like a sharp edgewhich might bite into the convex surface of the follower and tend toretard free relative sliding movement between said convex and concavesurfaces under the later l swing and sub sequent. thrust or pull of thedraw-bar. The rear follower 18 is provided with a convexed protuberance18 corresponding in all respects with the protuberance 17 of thefollower 17; and the rear closed end of the yoke is also provided with ablock 21 which has a concave face 91 reversely curved at its ends at 21similar in all respects to the formation of the concave face of theblock 20.

The block '20 is preferably secured to the inner end of the draw-bar bymeans of a vertically-apertured lug or boss 20 which enters the end ofthe hollow draw-bar and is secured by one of the usual bolts by whichthe yoke is attached to the inner end of the draw-bar proper. The rearblock 21 may be conveniently secured in the yoke by a bolt passedthrough a vertical aperture in the block and registermg apertures in thetop and bottom of the yoke, as clearly shown in Fig. 4.

The operation of the mechanism is fairly illustrated by Figs. 1, 2 and 3which show the relative positions assumed by the parts under ditferentstresses. In Fig. 1 the parts are shown as they appear when idle,wherein it will be seen that the concave faces of the filling-blocks Q0and 21 contact the convex faces of the followers 17 and 18, re

spectively, for a considerable extent on both sides of the centrallongitudinal axis of the resistance medium and throughout substantiallythe entire extent of said concave surfaces. From this it is evident thatunder the application of a draft or butting strain in the direction ofthe draw-bar as shown in Fig. 1, such as would occur on a straighttrack, the rear or front follower, as the case may be, will simply bemoved away from its cooperating stops without relative angular movementto the draw-oar or to its companion follower, and without consequentdisare imparted on curves, however, in the case r of the ordinary draftrigging at present extensively in use, such strains are imparted to themovable follower in such a way as to cant the follower or cramp theresistance medium. My invention obviates these 0bjections, as will beseen by reference to Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings, in connection withwhich the following operations occur. Considering first a butting strainon a curve, as illustrated by Fig. 2, when such strain occurs, theconcave face 20 of the forward filling-block undergoes a slight relativesliding movement over the convex faceof its cooperating follower 17,whereby substantially the same extended surface of contact. be tweensaid parts ismaintained, there being asubstantial contact on both sidesof the center of the follower and on both sides of the center of thelongitudinal axis of the resistance medium, the cooperating faces of therear follower and rear filling-block being separated, as shown, and theentire drawbar and its yoke undergoing a slight bodily lateral movement.

In the case of a draft strain applied on a curve, as illustrated in Fig.3, the cooperating faces of the front follower and forward filling-blockare separated, while between the cooperating curved faces of the rearfollower and rear filling'block there occurs a slight combined slidingand pivotal movement,which very slightly changes the contact relationsof said surfaces but still preserves a substantial surface of contact onboth sides of the center of the follower and on both sides of the axisof the resistance medium. Consequently, in this case, as well as in thecase illustrated in Fig. 2, the strains are substantially uniformlydistributed, with the result that the follower moves toward itscompanion follower without substantial change in its parallel relationthereto, which thus obviates any cramping of the resistance medium and'efiects an equal and uniform distribution of the strains through theends of the companion follower upon its cooperating stops. It will thusbe seen that the prot-uberances 17 and 18 constitute yieldable meansdisposed between the two ends of the yoke for guiding the latter in itslateral movements.

in Figs. 6 and 7 l have shown in detail a manner of constructing theengaging parts of a filling-block and follower whereby to economize thespace intervening between the end of the draw-bar or yoke and anadjacent follower. As shown in said figures the filling-block 20 extendsless than the full height of the interior vertical dimension of the yokeand its concave bearing surface lies within the outer surface of thefollower, the cooperating convex bearing surface of the follower beingformed in a recess within the outer surface of the follower. lt isunderstood that this is only one of a number of ways that might beemployed to accomplishthe object desired.

lln addition to the advantages hereinabove pointed out, it may bementioned that tl e,mechanism is self-centering, and automatically actsto restore the draw-bar to it has been customary in practice to providesome kind of rigid guide to maintain the yoke within limited lateralbodily displacement relatively to the longitudinal median line of thecar. The objections to this have been that during angular movement ofthe yoke on curves, either the yoke has tended to engage and bind on theguides, or the latter have become fulcrum points tending to displace thenormal pivotal center of the yoke during huillng or draft. The latter isparticularly true where the draw'bar has been allowed an increasedamount of side clearance. Where the draw-bar is riveted rigidly to theyoke, the yoke guides have operated to transmit excessive transverseshearing strains to the rivets that secure the yoke to the draw-bar. Mypresent invention obviates this objection in that the yoke is notconfined laterally by rigid guides, but by yielding guides which, ashereinabove pointed out, in cooperation with the resistance medium tendto re-center the yoke when free from buffing or draft strains, theyielding guides in the particular embodiment of the invention shown inthe drawing being the cotiperating curved surfaces on the followers anddraw-bar and yoke under the influence of the co-acting spring.

While l have shown and described one mechanical form in. which myinvention may be embodied, and which I have found by actual tests tosatisfactorily yield the re sults hereinabove described, yet I desire itto be understood that, in its broader aspects, the invention is by nomeans limited to the particular means shown and described for effectingthese results.

if claim:

1. In a draft-rigging mechanism, the combination with a resistancemedium and an angularly-movable draw-bar, of a follower interposedbetween said draw-bar and resistance medium and provided with a curvedconvex surface engaged by the drawbar, when the latter is movedlaterally, on the side opposite that to which the draw bar 'is moved,substantially as described.

2. In a draft-rigging mechanism, the combination witha draw-bar, of amember adapted to receive therefrom the strains of bufling, said memberhaving a convex'inset surface coiiperating with the draw-bar,substantially as described' 3. In a draft-rigging mechanism, thecombinationwith a draw-bar, of a member adapted to receive therefrom thestrains of buffing, said member having an inset surface cooperating withthe draw-bar, said inset surface being of less than the full height ofthe member, substantially as described.

4. In a draft-rigging mechanism, the combination with a draw-bar and afollower having respectively concave and convex engaging surfaces soformed and 00- operating that when the draw-bar is under strains ofbufiing in a sidewise position the strains are distributed on both sidesof the axis of the resistance medium, said cooperating surfaces lyingwithin the thickness of the follower and being of less than the fullheight of the follower, substantially as described.

5. In a draft-rig 'ng mechanism, the combination with a raw-bar, of afillingblock having a stem or shank entering an aperture in saiddraw-bar and secured by a pin passed therethrough, substantially asdescribed.

6. In a draft-rigging mechanism for railway cars, the combination withthe draft sills, of follower plates supported on the draft sills, springmechanism between the follower plates, yoke straps engaging about thefollower plates, contact blocks secured between the yoke-straps, agradually rounding convex extension from each follower plate, a pocketin each contact block into which the convex extension of the adjacentfollower plate extends, each pocket having two bearing surfaces intangential engagement with the convex extension, substantially asdescribed.

GEORGE H. FORSYTH. Witnesses:

SAMUEL N. POND, FREDERICK C. Gooowm.

